Proving again why he’s become the face of political journalism on local TV in Colorado, Fox 31 Denver’s Eli Stokols has produced, with Thomas Hendrick, a week-long series, called “Prescription for Change,” that beautifully illuminates the myths, pitfalls and benefits of Obamacare–as well as the details of how the new health care law affects you.

I can’t guarantee it, but I’ll give you my kids’ cat if you can find better local TV news coverage of Obamacare anywhere in the country.

Find the series, along with other Obamacare coverage, on Fox31 Denver’s website here.

Many local TV news reporters would love to be given the opportunity to actually practice journalism like Fox 31 allows Stokols to do.

But the management at most TV stations around the country wouldn’t dare touch this type of in-depth, informative reporting on a policy issue like Obamacare, because they think it’s boring on the tube. Stokols proves them wrong again in this series, and, thank you, Fox 31 managers and Stokols for doing it.

Scandals, investigations, and consumer reports, yes, you see that on local TV. And that’s good. But beat coverage of politics and policy issues? Fox 31 Denver continues to air coverage that you rarely see on TV.

This goes out to all the talk-radio hosts who were trying to say, during the recall election, that abortion issues are irrelevant to state and local politicians.

The Albuquerque Journal reports:

Albuquerque city councilors narrowly agreed late Monday to send the proposed abortion ordinance to voters in a special election this fall.

The council voted 5-4 to schedule the election for Nov. 19, which is also the tentative date for a runoff election in city races, if one is needed.

The proposed ordinance would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with narrow exceptions for cases in which the woman’s life is in danger.

Anti-abortion activists collected over 12,000 signatures to force the Council to put the measure on the ballot. Whether the law holds up in court, it’s more proof that abortion politics can play out at all levels of government.

I liked Denver Post Reporter Lynn Bartels article about Jon Caldara’s alleged intention to vote against John Morse because Bartels framed the story as one of the many antics that Caldara is known for.

Bartels began the piece by labeling Caldara a “political stunt man,” and later she reminded us of some of Caldara’s media events:

He is known for his antics — whether it’s  setting up Dominos or  trotting out out a huge swine made from a propane tank and papier-mâché — to highlight his position on issues.

Bartels didn’t dismiss Caldara’s latest voting antic as meaningless, because Caldara, like any citizen, has the right to move into a new district and vote there.

But if his intentions prove to be fake, and he votes, he’ll face felony charges for vote fruad, as Bartels pointed out. But threatening to move into a new district and vote is no felony. It’s a good stunt, if you’re Jon Caldara, and you want to get media attention. Good enough to raise questions and get Bartels’ attention.

Caldara’s stunt reminds me of a story from book about manipulating the media: A guy puts out a news release saying he’s going to burn a puppy in one week. Animal rights activists and the media go nuts.

No one can do anything because there’s no law against threatening to burn a puppy. After a week, the guy holds a news conference and emerges with a blow torch and a puppy, and he decries common-sense gun-safety laws or something, manipulating the media into covering his pet issue.  And the puppy lives!

Caldara’s stunt is similar. In the end, he may say his intention changed, he won’t move to CO Springs to vote against Morse, and he wanted to make a point. He may actually move to CO  Springs. He may vote and “change his intention” after casting his ballot against Morse, and accept the possible consequences as an act of civil disobedience.

In any case, it’s a stunt, and the media should mostly ignore Caldara at this point.  Like any citizen, Caldara will face charges if he votes in a district where he has no intention, or fake intentions, of living.

In the wake of El Paso Country Clerk Wayne Williams’ criticism last week of State Sen. John Morse, reporters should gain assurances from Williams that he’ll run a fair recall election in Colorado Springs.

On KFKA radio Aug. 29, Williams said it was “ironic given Bloomberg’s contributions yesterday” that Morse, in his official recall statement, urged voters to reject “out-of-state billionaire and extremists who are wasting $150,000 of our tax money” on the recall election.

It’s a surprising to hear Williams toss out partisan criticism because county clerks have a tradition of not taking sides in elections they’re running. It looks bad.

Williams is a well-known Republican, but it still looks bad.

And it should have raised the eyebrow of KFKA’s Devon Lentz, who was interviewing Williams on her and Tom Lucero’s AM Colorado morning show.

Lentz should have asked Williams point-blank: “Wayne, we may be friendly, but I have to ask if you think it’s appropriate for you to be attacking Sen. Morse, given that you’re in charge of the election? So I’m wondering, why voters should trust you to run a fair election.”

It’s a question Colorado Springs reporters might pick up and run with, as well. And at a minimum, reporters should keep an eye on Williams and see if they detect any signs of favoritism toward Republican challenger Bernie Herpin.

Lentz: Wayne, do you by any chance have senator Morse’s response to the recall that you can share with us?  I haven’t seen that.

Williams: Sure! I’ve got it right here, cuz it’s part of the ballot and I’ve got the sample ballot up in front of me….So, John Morse [preparing to read response from ballot] It’s kind of ironic. ‘Vote ‘no’ on the out-of-state billionaires and extremists who are wasting $150,000 of our tax money—’ I say ‘ironic’ given Bloomberg’s contributions yesterday—”and spending millions on a negative campaign to recall your twice-elected senator John Morse… [BigMedia emphasis]

Listen to Wayne Williams attacks Morse on AM Colorado 8.29.13 @4:30.

If you’re one of the organizers of the strikes at Denver fast-food restaurants today, you got to be feeling pretty good about the media coverage.

Unfortunately, worker demonstrations aren’t normally hot news items, unless it’s an NFL players’ strike or something, but today’s walkouts at MacDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell were a media home-run here in Denver, like they were in cities where strikes occurred earlier this summer. Strikes were scheduled in about 50 cities today.

A sample of local coverage includes KUSA 9News, KMGH 7News,  KDVR 31, The Denver Post, and KOA radio.

You can’t attribute the media interest to the August doldrums or to the good feelings after yesterday’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of MLK’s march on Washington.

High-impact visuals? Nope. Funny chants? Hey, hey, ho, ho, no. Overwhelming numbers? Nope. A media bias toward worker organizing? (cough).

So why the media interest?

Journalists responded to the notion that this would possibly be the largest nation-wide strike by fast-food workers. Their simple demand of a raise to a minimum of $15 per hour, about double the current hourly wage, is engaging. And (somehow) it seems fresh.

These are the people feeding near the bottom of big capitalism at a time when big capitalism is scary big. Their plight (and bravery) resonates, objectively, even if you oppose it. It’s a good story.

Given the fragile recovery of the economy, it looks like avoiding a government shutdown is way up there in terms of important news stories in the coming months. The stakes are high, and everybody is invested.

So utterances by Colorado’s congressional delegation on the topic should catch the ears of reporters, especially if such utterances sound particularly extreme or intransigent.

That’s how Rep. Cory Gardner sounded during an Aug. 23 radio interview on Greeley’s KFKA radio.  He acted as if he’d do whatever it takes during the budget process to defund part of Obamacare, and then Gardner said he’d look for ways to defund the mandatory parts of the program later. Negotiations didn’t seem to be on his radar screen.

Host Tom Lucero set up the issue in the most one-sided fashion, saying “Sen. Cruz has been out there advocating to defund Obamacare.”

“We do not want to shut the government down,” Lucero told Gardner.  “But once this final step is completed of funding Obamacare, we’re never going to be able to reel it back in.”

How could Gardner possibly not want to shut down the federal government, if you look at the history of this issue, if he says he wants to take on Obama and the Senate? Lucero skipped that question, and Gardner said:

Gardner: I think we use the budget, this chance we have before us, to defund the discretionary portion of the health care bill. I supported amendments to do that. I support a bill that did that. The question that we have is how then do we get to the rest of Obamacare that is then mandatory, because the continuing resolution, the budget appropriations bills that we pass, only deal with a small portion of Obamacare. The rest of it’s embedded in mandatory spending, just like Medicare or Medicaid is embedded in mandatory spending. So we do that, but then we have a lot more work to do. So, the job would not yet done. But I’m committed that this bill is dismantled bit by bit, piece by piece, in its entirety, and we put something in its place that will actually work to help the American people address this rising health care costs, something the President’s bill is doing nothing to do…

Gardner: If we’re going to have a Constitutional republic that embraces three separate but equal branches, the legislative branch, regardless of who is in power, regardless of whether their party is in the White House or not, has to assert their authority and say, ‘You know what Mr. President, I’m sorry, not only no because it’s bad policy, but no because you don’t have the right, power or ability to do it. And that’s what we’ve got to stand up and do. Obviously the Senate is obviously going to think otherwise on this. I wish they wouldn’t.

Listen to Rep. Gardner say he’ll use budget negotiations to stop Obamacare KFKA 08-23-13

Reporters should fill in the gaps aren’t addressed on talk radio, including asking Gardner about the risks of a government shutdown and the details of what he thinks should replace Obamacare. Listen to Rep. Gardner say he’ll use budget negotiations to stop Obamacare KFKA 08-23-13

Devon Lentz and Tom Lucero are KFKA talk-radio hosts and also former Larimer Country Republican officials. Lucero was a CU regent.

So you have to admire them for not pulling their punches when discussing state Sen. Owen Hill’s statement, from an email, that Hill is the only GOP candidate that Sen. Mark Udall fears.

Here’s what they had to say:

Lucero: Think about this, Devon. You’re a 31-year-old. You’ve just been elected to the Colorado State Senate, and you’re feeling so good about yourself you decide to run for the U.S. Senate…. You announce for the U.S. Senate and you come out and bash all of the Republicans who are running in the Republican primary, one of whom is Weld County’s own District Attorney Ken Buck, who actually won the Republican nomination two years ago in a U.S. Senate race and barely lost to U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet by I think 33,000 votes.

Lucero: We are talking about Owen Hill, State Senator out of El Paso County…. He was so bold as to say, I am the only candidate Mark Udall fears in the Republican primary.

[BigMedia note: Fox 31’s Eli Stokols reported Tuesday that Hill’s source for this information was state Rep. Dan Nordberg.]

Lentz: All right. When I read that, I didn’t read any further, because I don’t care to read about someone’s inflated ego. So I stopped reading at that point. But I remember a couple of years ago having a conversation with you, and I said, “What is WRONG with this individual?” And you said, “It’s that bug you get bitten by when you realize you are an elected official but then eventually you get better and then you realize that you’re still human.

Lucero: MOST elected officials get better, not all of them. Some of them think they are President of the United States….

Lentz: So all I can think is Owen has gotten himself bit numerous times. And like I said, I had to stop reading the article after the first statement because I was like, wow, is ego is so in the way.

Lucero: Everybody kind of laughed at him. It was fun, because Mark Udall’s campaign laughed at him. Ken Buck’s campaign laughed at him. He had the audacity, when asked about Randy Baumgardner, to say, “Randy Who?”  He’s a little full of himself. I don’t mind ego. I don’t mind confidence. But when you have arrogance  — there’s a difference between having a healthy, a.k.a., Tom Lucero, Devon Lentz, versus being arrogant Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, where you’re posing in front of the mirror…kissing himself…  How to Win Friends and Influence People. Owen Hill needs a copy….

Back in May, just before Colorado’s new election law was signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams moaned in The Denver Post about how lousy the law’s expanded voting options would be, how dangerous and counter-productive.

“The proponents of this bill blatantly disregard your choice as an individual to choose how you exercise one of your most protected rights, and that is a problem,” Williams wrote, adding that the law is filled with “needless mandates.”  “If you, like me, love America’s sacred tradition of honest, fair, and transparent elections you should be scared,” he wrote.

But Williams sounded downright excited about the new voting options, required under the new law, when he spoke with KVOR talk-show host Richard Randall July 19.

Williams: “We absolutely want everyone who is legally entitled to vote to have that opportunity to do so.  And so, those [mail ballots] ballots go out. But then we’ll also have a series of voting service and polling centers.  That’s a new provision under the law.  And those are open beginning  – and yes, you’ll love this, — on Labor Day!

Randall: Oh, my gosh!  [laughs]

Williams: We’re going to have all four of our motor vehicle offices as the voter service polling centers.  That puts more than 99% of the voters in Senate District 11 within 10 minutes of a voting service and polling center.

Randall: Wow!

Williams: And they will be open from 8 to 5, Monday through Saturday, and then the Monday and Tuesday of the election, and actually on the Election Day itself, they will be open 7 to 7.  So, we are going to provide a lot of opportunities for folks to come in and vote in person.  So, if you get your mail ballot, you don’t like to vote by mail, you still have that opportunity to vote in person.  If you want to vote it by mail you can mail it back in, you can drop it off at any of our four offices.  And we’re actually going to have for the first time, 24 hour drop off at all four of our offices….

We will then continue to send mail ballots up until deadlines are reached.  And at that point, folks will need to register in the office, or come into one of the voter service and polling centers for that — those eight days of voting,  that Monday through Saturday and that Monday /Tuesday.  And they can register to vote and get a ballot at the same time. [Editor’s note: This type of quick-and-easy voter registration, referred to as “same-day registration,” was a provision of the election-modernization bill.]

Randall: Yeah, and I’m a procrastinator.  I do not want to encourage people to do this, but I know that part of that procrastination for me and a lot of other people is just that we’ve got very, very busy, hectic days and lives.  If somebody were in a situation where it was within those eight days, am I right to assume that they could actually show up at the office and say, “Look, I need to register,” and then I can go ahead and vote after I do that?

Williams: Absolutely.

I give a lot of credit to Williams for accepting Colorado’s expanded voter conveniences, and being so excited about them!

But I wish Randall had asked Williams if he’s had a change of heart about the new voting law since he trashed it a few months ago, or if Williams is just putting on a happy face.

by Michael Lund

The news out of Public Employees’ Retirement Association today is good news for Colorado and Coloradoans. 

PERA’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report announced a realized 12.9% return on investments for 2012, and a 22 year average of 10%.  This return outpaced PERA’s projection which had been set at 8%. 

However, for Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton and his sycophantic chorus of talk radio hosts, the news undermines a centerpiece of their talking points. 

Since taking office in 2011, Stapleton has been making the rounds of right-wing talk radio shows, inciting GOP and Tea Party posses with predictions of looming financial Armageddon due to an unsustainable pension system for Colorado’s public employees.  Without a squeak of protest from his hosts, he asserts the root of the problem to be unfunded liabilities resulting from the PERA board’s unrealistic projection on the rate of returns for their investments. 

Here’s an exchange with Jon Caldara on Devil’s Advocate from November 2011: 

Walker Stapleton: In Colorado, we have set an expectation that people will be guaranteed effectively an 8% rate of return on the investments that the pension fund makes over a 30 year time period.

Jon Caldara: Eight percent?!

Stapleton: Eight percent. So —

Caldara: Wait, wait, wait, slow down, here! Because I’m not a financial genius on this, but I’ve been looking at my 401K plan and it’s not getting anywhere close to 8% — more like negative 8%. But it doesn’t seem that 8% as a guaranteed rate of return has anything to do with reality. Does it?

Stapleton: Right. I don’t believe that it does. And if you look, you know, markets go up and markets go down. We’ve witnessed the stock market lose more than five percent in one week alone this year. So to guarantee a 8% rate of return is a very difficult benchmark to achieve […]

Caldara: Am I wrong, or is this just fantasy […]?

Fantasy?  Apparently not.  Despite a desperately challenging economic climate for investments since 2008, PERA has proved to be a capable and responsible steward of the retiree’s assets.  Sound decision-making based on actuarial data and smart investment strategies have quelled the hyperbolic  fearmongering on talk shows, for now. 

Perhaps we should just feel thankful that talk show hosts aren’t managing our portfolios.  Their “realistic” rate of return would miss the mark of actual earnings by a factor of ten.  On Grassroots Radio last year, hosts Ken Clark and Jason Worley, along with their guest, CO Senate candidate Dave Piggot, scoffed at PERA’s projections.

Ken Clark: […] You tell me where on this planet right now anybody can get an 8% return.

Jason Worley: Guaranteed.

Dave Pigott: [laughs] I can’t do it. I don’t know where you can get near 8% rate, unless you work for a payday lender, or you are on the receiving side of VISA or MasterCard.

Clark: Guido and Rocco—

Worley: Yeah, there might be some loan sharks out there who—

Clark: Guido and Rocco, I think, are getting about 8% but that’s about it. There isn’t any place you can go. We just talked about in our very first segment how the market and this last week has lost all of the 2012 games. You think the mutual funds are doing well? You think Oppenheimer is really having a great day? I don’t think so.

Worley: Do you think that all the money that PERA has out there invested—

Clark: […] oh yeah! PERA just took a hit as well. If you want a guaranteed rate of return, you’re talking 1.2%.

Projections are not guaranteed, granted.  But PERA realized returns above the short- and long-term projections.  For that, we should all be happy. 

Considering the optimistic indications, perhaps Stapleton, Caldara, Worley, and Clark will reform their message to a more upbeat, accurate representation of reality.  But then again, considering the ideology that drives them, perhaps we shouldn’t hold our breath. 

I blogged Friday about complaints from an African-American radio host, who’s also a leader of the Black Tea Party, that Colorado Republican Chair Ryan Call isn’t properly supporting grassroots organizing efforts to diversify the state GOP.

The Colorado GOP responded Saturday to that criticism, which was aired by Derrick Wilburn, founder of the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party, on his KZNT radio show last Saturday.

Colorado GOP Communications Director Owen Loftus told the Daily Caller’s Greg Campbell:

“As chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Ryan receives many invitations to attend and speak at events and meetings across the state, and he does attend as many as possible,” he wrote in an email. “As Mr. Wilburn stated, Ryan has even met with the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives.”

“Chairman Priebus was in town to discuss Hispanic outreach,” he continued. “The vast majority of people at the meeting were members of the Hispanic community. We were happy to have Mr. Wilburn there to share his thoughts. Unfortunately, given Chairman Preibus’s tight schedule, no one was able to speak at length, not even elected officials like Rep. Clarice Navarro.”

Ryan Call even met with Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives!

But what else has he done? I don’t think the Colorado GOP has sufficiently responded to the gist of Wilburn’s complaint that the state party isn’t showing enough love to African Americans, young people, Hispanics, etc. What’s happening, beyond talk, to diversify the party? This is a story that needs to be told.